About 50 devices matching the characteristics of Apple's forthcoming tablet have been tracked from the company's Cupertino, Calif., campus, with the devices reportedly being used to test iPhone applications.

Mobile analytics firm Furry released new statistics this week on what it claims are approximately 50 devices that were "reliably" placed on Apple's campus. The company has alleged that the devices are pre-release tablets in testing, and that testing increased dramatically in January. Such devices were first spotted in October of 2009.

Flurry found that the unknown hardware was running iPhone OS 3.2, an unreleased version of Apple's mobile operating system. If the tracking proves accurate, it could mean that rumors of a tablet running iPhone OS 4.0 could be off the mark.

Peter Farago, VP of of Marketing with the firm, noted that Flurry believes the devices running iPhone OS 3.2 are tablets because the hardware, when asked via software, did not identify itself as an iPhone. He also said that some devices testing iPhone OS 4.0 have been spotted -- but they leave the Cupertino campus, while those running iPhone OS 3.2 do not.

In addition, Farago said the applications tested on the new device fell in line with what the tablet is expected to feature, with a strong focus on reading and news. Further details, including what specific applications were accessed, could not be share due to the company's terms of service.

"If you were able to see the data we see, at the level of granularity," Farago said, "it would be clear to you as well."

Flurry tracked which applications were downloaded and launched from the new, unseen hardware. Of more than 200 applications tested, the vast majority were games, the firm found.

"Historically, tablet devices have been considered substitutes for anything where workers use clipboards, note pads or day runners," the report said. "In more industrial settings, they could be used for inventory management, taking purchase orders or data entry. However, there was a surprising dearth of applications that support these use cases. Instead, the largest category was games. "

Following that, the most utilized categories were entertainment, news & books, lifestyle, utilities, music and photography. The firm noted that there was a strong trend toward news, books and media consumption.

For months, rumors of Apple's intent to have the tablet focus partially on e-books and news have persisted. Last week alone, multiple reports suggested the hardware maker was in negotiations with book publisher HarperCollins, educational publisher McGraw-Hill, trade book publisher Hachette Book Group, and potentially six of the largest trade publishers in the U.S.

the 3.2 part makes me believe the entire thing is B.S..there's hell of a lot of people who are flat out lying in desperate attempts for attention right now. This tablet hype is unlike anything i've ever seen.

We also did not need anyone to tell us that the Tablet will run Apps. This was a given 1.5 year ago.

the 3.2 part makes me believe the entire thing is B.S..there's hell of a lot of people who are flat out lying in desperate attempts for attention right now. This tablet hype is unlike anything i've ever seen.

We also did not need anyone to tell us that the Tablet will run Apps. This was a given 1.5 year ago.

there was a rumor that iphone OS 3.2 was delayed due to a lot of shared code with the new tablet and it would give the tablet away if it was released early.

and it's very easy to know if the IP address belongs to Apple or not. Apple has owned a huge class A block of IP's for decades

Also, if there are indeed new business/productivity apps for these devices, where on the net are they going to be downloaded from? For example, if there is multitouch iWork, wouldn't that be preinstalled on the test devices?

And I love how the site that claims to be giving a detailed breakdown of the whole marketing focus of the tablet refuses to release the screen resolution because they feel it's sensitive information. It couldn't be that it's easily verified as wrong if they give the wrong resolution, could it?

Many of us were holding hopes that 4.0 was a substantial upgrade that the Tablet would be based off of.

Maybe its capable of running 3.2, but I see almost no reason for 50 devices to be running the current iPhone OS if the key features of the Tablet are 4.0 connected.

You never know. When Tiger (maybe around 10.4.4 or 10.4.6?) came out it was a HUGE update to the Mac OS X platform. A "key feature" (as you put it) of it was something called a universal binary. Around that time Apple also released 10.3.9 which gave Panther the ability to run that key feature. Therefore, there's nothing to say that the "key features" for the tablet aren't included with 3.2. It could very well be that some of 3.2's features are coded in that they'll only work on the tablet.

IMO the tablet must run OS 4.0, and the tested devices were iPhones with OS 3.2. As they couldn't release that version 3.2 yet because of the too many tablet-related info showing inside, it says to me that it was running on the iPhone.

Ads in apps. The ads in free/lite versions of paid apps will report back to base each time an ad is shown, detailing the device it was shown on, and the app it was shown in.

if that is the case, the report is worded poorly since it says it's tracking downloaded apps, and the conclusions are more a reflection of what kind of apps would have an ad rather than the makeup of apps running on the tablet.

For example I'm pretty certain that iWork touch, if it exists, wouldn't have embedded ads.

if that is the case, the report is worded poorly since it says it's tracking downloaded apps, and the conclusions are more a reflection of what kind of apps would have an ad rather than the makeup of apps running on the tablet.

For example I'm pretty certain that iWork touch, if it exists, wouldn't have embedded ads.

to reply to my own post. it's not tracking ads, but rather flurry had analytics that developers can ad to their own apps that reports back to flurry as the apps are launched. This is for developers to track the usage of their own apps, but certainly could tell Flurry about new devices running those same apps.

But, again, this tracking would be limited to the existing apps this analyltics is installed on, thus their tracking wouldn't tell you anything about new apps, like a potential iWorks touch.

to reply to my own post. it's not tracking ads, but rather flurry had analytics that developers can ad to their own apps that reports back to flurry as the apps are launched. This is for developers to track the usage of their own apps, but certainly could tell Flurry about new devices running those same apps.

But, again, this tracking would be limited to the existing apps this analyltics is installed on, thus their tracking wouldn't tell you anything about new apps, like a potential iWorks touch.

Correct. And again, I really believe this company just made it up. Everyone is doing it attitude, for a little publicity.

He also says his terms & conditions prevent them from providing any actual evidence, just their word should good enough.

One giant iPod touch with iPhoto and iPhone OS does not sound innovative at all.

Plus the company doing this leaks the info? No way. This is just part of Apples epic marketing technique for FREE PRESS then followed by a real working ipad, facial, iWork and innovative. Classic Apple publicity stunt. If true though man, this won't be good. It will start making me wondering about the vaporware courier.

One giant iPod touch with iPhoto and iPhone OS does not sound innovative at all.

Plus the company doing this leaks the info? No way. This is just part of Apples epic marketing technique for FREE PRESS then followed by a real working ipad, facial, iWork and innovative. Classic Apple publicity stunt. If true though man, this won't be good. It will start making me wondering about the vaporware courier.

Very true. It's crunch time. Apple has to reel in some of this hype they've spread, and get everyone's hopes down in the last hour, in order to impress Wednesday.

Truly I don't know if its even possible for Apple to please even 50% of the people watching for this announcement, but we'll see.

Waiting all these years, and speculating, of course I have always thought I 'd see the day, but it's been so long talking about the tablet and so little actual information trickling out from apple that it's almost unreal that in such a short and concrete time frame they will be presenting it.

EDIT:
Full portfolio here. The designer's name is Patrycjucz Brzezinski.

Well it looks nice, I d like to put one of these next to the 27" imac, reminds me of Austin Powers and mini me, haha. But it's not really the designers idea, it's just the imac as a dock. A couple of more things, the protrusion keeping this stable should be at the back, and I feel there won't be able to dock it this way, on the horizontal dimension, as the dock will be on the small dimension. Still, it looks great, albeit a bit funny.

Brzezinski's name is now buzzing in connection with his tablet mockups. He sketched some sliders, too. When I see Mac OS Dock, I believe the next thing to do is to launch Terminal application on tablet.

P.S. La médecine du travail (don't really know what is the analog in the States; they're people at your enterprise to ask question about your health and to lecture you about how they're useful) says, the top edge of the screen should be kept exactly at level your eyes.

We mean Apple no harm.

People are lovers, basically. -- Engadget livebloggers at the iPad mini event.

If this is wrong, and I hope it is, an earlier article said that 4.0 will be for iPhone 3g and 3gs only. I think they were just excluding the first gen iPhone and itouch, not all iPod touches. It would just make a bunch of people mad because the current itouch is just as fast as the 3gs. Is here something I don't know that would let only the iPhones be able to run 4.0 woh probable multitasking, according to the oher article?

There is plenty to like about this mockup. The simplicity of sliding into the simple dock, which I assume has more ports in it. Even the comparisons to the new iMac which the glass that goes edge to edge. But ultimately it doesn’t make sense to use a 10” device like you would a 27” iMac.

If I press on the touchscreen to navigate is it to going to take the force of my fingers without tipping a little, maybe even toppling backwards? With the iMac stand the force is pressing down on the stand, but if you alter the center of gravity with rapid use it could problematic. Not that that a better can’t be designed, it would be easy, but that is not it. What about the now awkward use of a touchscreen device with outstretched arms?

Okay, you can plug in a keyboard and mouse, but doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the tablet thereby making it something Apple won’t likely allow since if they’re trying to get you to use a new method for input over an old, entrenched method?

Now look at the Mac OS X items on that display. They are tiny. They aren’t usable. Mac OS X sucks on a netbook so it’ll suck on any 10” display. The OS we’ll see will designed for the tablet.

Still…. it’s better than the mockups of sliding the tablet into an iMac.

PS: I wish graphic designers and engineers were a more common breed.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Now look at the Mac OS X items on that display. They are tiny. They arent usable. Mac OS X sucks on a netbook so itll suck on any 10 display. The OS well see will designed for the tablet.

Ah yes, just as I imagined it... And obviously I didn't think it through very far. Good thing I'm not a designer or engineer!

You're right, of course. A 10" iMac would be not particularly useful. Still, there's something about the design that is appealing. If only we could get the idea of a tablet computer to someone like, I dunno, say Steve Jobs, and then get him to devote 3-10 years working on the design and function so that he could debut the final answer when it's ready.

Let's say that the tablet is in production right now or about to go into a manufacturing ramp for a March ship date (as some rumors claim).

That means that the device probably had been running a version of the operating system for about 4-6 months and that OS will be locked going into production. The last released version of iPhone OS was 3.1.2, released about three months ago.

The lack of activity concerning bug fixes, updates, etc. for the iPhone/iPod touch would lend credence to the idea of the iPhone OS team focusing on nailed out the initial version of the OS for the tablet. Another OS team would be focused on the next gen iPhone OS (4.0) which would presumably run on the next gen iPhone, which would likely debut this summer (after the Worldwide Developers Conference) if the past reflects what one could expect.

It is plausible that the tablet would have rather limited differentiation until the 4.0 software is released, a version that would more fully exploit the unique capabilities of the device and while it is running 3.x, it would just seem like a gigantic iPod touch.

Ah yes, just as I imagined it... And obviously I didn't think it through very far. Good thing I'm not a designer or engineer!

You're right, of course. A 10" iMac would be not particularly useful. Still, there's something about the design that is appealing. If only we could get the idea of a tablet computer to someone like, I dunno, say Steve Jobs, and then get him to devote 3-10 years working on the design and function so that he could debut the final answer when it's ready.

If only...

There are will be a market for stands for the tablet, if not for anything else then for charging, docking. An ever more common use/demand will be to have the stand at a comfortable height/angle to dock the tablet and read on a desk, on a kitchen table, on a podium, all sorts of uses. And I am sure we will see an imac look alike stand then. There are even at least a couple of imac look alike docks for the iphone at the moment, but for the life of me don't ask me their names because I am on the other side of thirty.

Truly I don't know if its even possible for Apple to please even 50% of the people watching for this announcement, but we'll see.

My guess is that it will be great in multiple ways, but will have infuriating defects, omissions and lockdowns. Just like the iPhone.

But it will sell for a stupid-high price, and there will be lines overnight filled with giddy fanbois for the press to photograph on launch day.

Later, Apple will fix some glaring omissions and lower the price. Just like the iPhone.

Then, over time, they will add basic functionality and the price will still be higher than competitor's tablets, and folks will still buy them, this time crowing about how much it was worth it to spend more money for a basic feature that was intentionally omitted from earlier generations. Just like the iPhone.

Ah yes, just as I imagined it... And obviously I didn't think it through very far. Good thing I'm not a designer or engineer!

You're right, of course. A 10" iMac would be not particularly useful. Still, there's something about the design that is appealing. If only we could get the idea of a tablet computer to someone like, I dunno, say Steve Jobs, and then get him to devote 3-10 years working on the design and function so that he could debut the final answer when it's ready.

If only...

i agree, it’s visually quite compelling, but so are the transparent displays in the movie Avatar. If people complain about glare from a light source behind them, imagine having light from all directions on your display. Sure, there are uses for this kind of tech, when you need to see behind the display, like a windshield, but for most uses it doesn’t work.

I think the closest we’ve seen to apps on the Tablet OS may be in iMovie '09. That app has slide outs that seems to work well for a tablet, where options can slide in and out of the scene space and the buttons are mostly large enough to be used with finger gestures. It’s still designed for a Mac, but there is a lot you can do with just a multitouch trackpad.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"